Can anyone explain this parable spoken by Christ?

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Vengle53

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Just as the field is the world, the world is the field into which the church was sent out there at Matthew 28:18-20.

The church is among the workers in the field. I said "among" because the tares also have their work going on in that field.

But the "angels", if you do not want to accept that these are "messengers" indeed also anointed workers of the church, then go ahead and see them as spirit angel's assisting the church as the workers in the field.

Matthew 24:40-51

Gathering the wheat into the barn is no different than gathering the sheep into one flock and one fold to be cared for by one shepherd.
 

aspen

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Truly anticatholic people are rare, but here he is in all his glory - sorry to see you self destruct like this Bud/Mike. Just shows what hate can do to the heart.
 

Vengle53

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Many subjects are multi-faceted like the differing cuts of a single diamond.

I used to be taken back when people would insist that the tares in Jesus' parable here were good and bad beliefs right within the self-same individual's heart.

All I could see at that time was that the tares were Satan's children and the Wheat were the children of the kingdom. And it now seems to me in hind-sight that the problem for the ones I was talking to at the time was that they saw only the activity as all taking place in each individual's heart.

Today, I see that we were both right in our perspectives and that if we had been more humbly flexible to allow ourselves the freedom to wear each one the other's eyes we could have both benefited at that time.

At the risk of sounding like the mad man that I am? Oh, wait a minute.... did I say that? Yes, I did.

I sincerely wish that my tongue could always speak with the excellence of an angel as Paul speaks of at 1 Corinthians 13:1 but it to my my shame does not. Having bore and raised a sizable portion of the world's children (a slight exaggeration) I have often reflected on how I could have communicated thoughts differently to them than I did thus better honoring Christ and being more of a help to them. It was surely never that I did not want to do so and I suppose that even in my flaws the scriptures (if they but embrace the Word in their heart) will help them find something valuable to learn.

With that in mind I say to my children, "I love you and I am sorry I was not more up to being able to show that love as I would rather have wanted to do."

In ways the fact that I was not so perfect as I used to think I needed to be was a blessing. My children are less hypocritical of themselves and others (including of me) as a result. They see that we are all simply imperfect humans struggling to do the best that we can. They have grasped a greater depth of Paul's words when he said basically that love suffers long, and is kind; ... does not show off, is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not its own selfish interests, is not easily provoked, thinks not to do evil to anyone, ... bears the weaknesses of others, seeks to believe the best concerning others, hopes for the best in all things, endures all things rather than letting things become causes to hate. Yes, love never fails.

It is not easy, is it brothers?

But that is all the more reason we can be grateful for God's patience with us. Our weakness has in a way amplified God's goodness in our minds and hearts.
 

Vengle53

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And so now that my tongue has done its fair share of rambling, I will ramble yet further concerning the multi-cuts of this diamond given us as the parable of the wheat and the tares.

It used to be that my mind-set could only see an expression like "bind them in bundles to be burned" as God's wrath of destruction. Everything was to me like the old cowboy movies where there were good guys wearing white hats and bad guys wearing black hats. And that "I know me and I know I am a good guy" attitude worked against me in many ways. Because of it I could not use the word but in a way that set my self up in my imagination as better than another whom I judged be wearing a black hat through their own choice to remain ignorant. That attitude is more despicable than any I sought in others to correct. I had not yet cast the beam out of my own eye before pridefully imagining that I wore a white hat and was smiled upon by God to be one of his teachers.

Brothers, think about how serious that matter is. This is how men unknown to themselves end up actually doing Satan's work rather than God's. Do you see in that how there is even a basis for compassion toward such ones? It makes us more fully appreciate James' counsel:

James 5:7-9 "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door."

What I now see as the principle reason the scripture teaches us the things that it does is so that we are equipped with the knowledge and understanding to look for these things in ourselves. "Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door."

It is rather obvious that in this field of the world (the enlarged territory wherein God seeks to harvest out his "lost sheep" for the purpose of also bringing with them the valuable things out of all of the nations).

Psalms 105:42 For he remembered his holy promise, and Abraham his servant.
43 And he brought forth his people with joy, and his chosen with gladness:
44 And gave them the lands of the heathen: and they inherited the labour of the people;
45 That they might observe his statutes, and keep his laws. Praise ye the LORD.

That is why the tares are tolerated. Our great Father is performing delicate surgery to untangle us all, both of the house of Israel who are the stewards of his church and of a great crowd of other sheep throughout each generation of man.

As this untangling occurs we see the visible church further segregate into bundles. These bundles appear to be churches of Christ but are not. They are being subjected to further trial by fire for God does not delight in their death, either. The weeping and gnashing of teeth is these bundles biting at one another and especially at God's wheat-like ones. They are not willing to accept that they have been wrong. Yet some will eventually admit they were wrong made possible by the merciful patience of God.

Every visible church delights to see themselves as God's barn. But I tell you that we walk by faith and not by sight; we keep our eyes fixed not on the temporal things seen, but on the imperishable things that are unseen. And God has hidden the true church from the fleshly eyes of men lest men slay them.

Do I speak like a mad man? Yes, I do. For now I am telling you that you can see the true church for in these last days it is firmly established atop of the mountains and to it people of all nations stream.

Isaiah 2:2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
5 O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.

Isaiah 11:16 And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.

Isaiah 35:8 And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but is shall be for the redeemed: the wayfaring men, yea fools, shall not err therein. (ASV)

Hebrews 12:22 but ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels,
23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
24 and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better than that of Abel.
25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not when they refused him that warned them on earth, much more shall not we escape who turn away from him that warneth from heaven:
 

Vengle53

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I told you that I talk like a mad man, for, look at all of the questions the picture i have painted gives rise to.

But remember, these bundles are where? They are yet in God's field as it is being sorted. They are slowly being tended by the workers in that field and those workers (those that are of the true church Christ in the heavens above) are making certain with God's help that only genuine tares will in the finally remain in these bundles.

We could say that the true church is represented in Revelation to be multiple churches. But what is seen in Revelation are not yet the tried and proved church of Christ save one even being close, Philadelphia even of who it says, "Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." (Revelation 3:11- 13)

By these messages to the churches do you not see that we are not yet able to look with certainty on the tried and proved church of Christ? Can you see why it is true that, "For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God"? (Romans 8:19)

Can you see that we are not really able to know for sure who the new church is until, "And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God." (Revelation 21:2-3)

We all want to be that barn, don't we. Lest we prove just a bundle of tares:
1 Timothy 3:15 "But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth."

And if the fleshly appearance of a church that we belong to does not so try to abide, perhaps it is time for us to step out of the bundle and so stop burning with them.
 

Vengle53

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I yet have more madness to speak.

Do you know that before Christ reveals himself to reward his faithful and meet out the wrath of God on the tares who refuse to be healed (Matthew 13:15) there is an hour of inspection?

Matthew 25-14-46 is that hour of inspection and it is now. All of these parables in Matthew 24 and 25 tie into this parable of the wheat and the tares.
 

Robbie

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What it says to me personally is... we shouldn't make judgments about people based on our perception of who they are today because we have no idea who that person will eventually become tomorrow or when they are fully grown... by doing so we could treat someone who is wheat as a tare... I personally don't want to be guilty of treating one of God's kids like a weed because I chose to judge them when I was told not to...
 

Vengle53

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What it says to me personally is... we shouldn't make judgments about people based on our perception of who they are today because we have no idea who that person will eventually become tomorrow or when they are fully grown... by doing so we could treat someone who is wheat as a tare... I personally don't want to be guilty of treating one of God's kids like a weed because I chose to judge them when I was told not to...

Amen.

1 Corinthians 4:5 "Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God."

Everything fits together like a neat puzzle. Even the man of sin tthat stands up in the temple of God publicly showing himself that he is God (ar as God by bearing God's authority to change even times and seasons).

Ponder what Paul and the anointed firstfruits with Christ were holding abay:: 1 Corinthians 4:8 "Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you."